Euphoria over anti-pollution strictures subsides as reality sinks in

The euphoria over anti-pollution strictures subsides as reality sinks in.

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Smruti Koppikar

SAMAR HALARNKAR

July 15, 1996

ISSUE DATE: July 15, 1996

UPDATED: June 4, 2013 16:14 IST

Shock treatment: Time stands still at factories like this Remington Rand unit in Calcutta, which the management shut down after failing to meet pollution norms

At a time when industrialisation is the mantra of growth, the judiciary is forcing industries and government to pause, and take a look at what they have wrought.

It's not a pretty sight: poisoned lands, fouled rivers and murky air. Thwarted by an apathetic government, environmentalists and desperate farmers went to the judiciary. Judgement was hard - by the Supreme Court, and in Gujarat, the high court.

Over the past 15 months, more than 10,000 units nationwide were either shut down, warned, asked to relocate or given an ultimatum to clean up. Jubilant activists cited the judgements as a landmark in environmental justice. But it's becoming clear that the judicial hammer is no magic wand.

Confusion reigns in the states of Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Delhi, where the judgements have hit the hardest. Judges are struggling with complex technical, economic and, specifically, employment questions. Deadlines pass, and new ones are set. Some closed factories have reopened using emotional pleas and judicial legerdemain, but many remain shut. Examples:

In Tamil Nadu, the tanning industry has lost Rs 200 crore directly. Losses in downstream industry are estimated at Rs 500 crore. Some 50,000 workers have migrated in search of work.

In Gujarat there's no figure on losses, but estimates run into hundreds of crores. The future of about 70,000 workers is on hold.

Why the chaos? The judiciary is learning on the job - and trying to do the work of civic and regulatory agencies. Success is limited. "Asking judges for a remedy doesn't make sense," argues Chattrapati Singh, director of the World Wide Fund for Nature's Centre for Environmental Law. "It's just not their job. They don't have the time or the expertise."

Judicial strictures are no guarantee against fresh violations. Many units simply reduce or stop production till the dust settles.

Indignant industrialists have a point when they say that for decades the Government itself ignored pollution.

"For a long time we believed that industry of any type, operating in any conditions, was good for the country," says S.C. Maudgal, senior adviser, Ministry of Environment and Forests (MEF). Pollution-control equipment? Payoffs were a cheaper option. "Regulatory agencies have become part and parcel of this connivance," says Maudgal.

Still, emboldened by judicial activism, some long-dormant pollution-control boards are beginning crackdowns. And however much they might stall, industries realise that clean-up time is here. "Pollution has now become visible, and it's demanding action," says K.P Niyati, environmental spokesman for the Confederation of Indian Industry.

Everyone now realises that there is no alternative to cleaning up. The debate increasingly is about how to clean up, the costs, the time and options available. But there's a long way to go.

Erring Industrial Units: Stalling and StrugglingIt's been more than a decade since Tamil Nadu's 553 tanneries were given guidelines on how to bring down the toxicity and salinity of their effluents. The tanning process uses more than 250 chemicals. Yet, the tanneries were jolted into action only last year, after the Supreme Court cracked the whip.

Flawed solutions: The effectiveness of many treatment plants is in doubt, with toxic chemicals remaining in discharged effluents, as in this Tamil Nadu tannery

Industries simply dumped their wastes wherever they could all these years. After the shock of the initial judgements, they stalled repeatedly. Now even that isn't working, and they're desperately looking for quick fixes.

In Gujarat's chemical heartland, a 450 km strip of land called the "golden corridor", industry is being brought to book - kicking and screaming. "Industrial units are finding excuses not to comply with court directives," says R.C. Trivedi, former chairman of the Gujarat Pollution Control Board.

Some excuses are genuine, others are preferred simply to buy time. The first tool of delay is the construction of common effluent-treatment plants (CETPS) for small-scale industries. Second, the employment question, which is often used by industries to restart production and win court reprieves.

More than three-fourths of the industries cited for environmental violations are small-scale industries, which often cannot afford pollution-control equipment. But CETPS may not be the panacea they promise; they require commitment and cooperation.

If there's a will, there's a way. In Ambur, Tamil Nadu, tanneries set up their own effluent-treatment company after fruitlessly waiting three years for the state government agency concerned to do the job.

The first CETP was up and running within 12 months. "We cannot allow our business to die because of governmental inaction," says Mohammed Sayeed, managing director of the Ambur company. Ambur is an exception.

Typically, state governments pay 50 per cent of the cost of CETPS - which range from Rs 6 crore to Rs 30 crore - 25 per cent comes from loans and the balance is supposed to be from industry contributions. But it's difficult to get industries to cough up even that much.

Toxic chemicals remaining in discharged effluents, as in this Tamil Nadu tannery

This means effluent-treatment plants (CETPS) struggle to dilute chemically incompatible effluents unless there has been some preliminary treatment. "Industries use ETPS as a good way of winning time and getting subsidies," says MEF adviser Maudgal.

A court-appointed committee in Gujarat found that most errant units didn't really care how their ETPS worked, while others simply reduced or stopped production until "the dust settles" Many units continued dumping.

Easier to handle is the employment issue, which industries have successfully used to buy time. Some orders explicitly protect jobs and wages while others are vague. That leads to angry union reaction, as in West Bengal, who are fiercely opposed to closures.

"What we need is for the courts to tell us exactly what is meant by protection of wages, so employers can be forced to part with that," says Bhushan Oza, a labour and environmental lawyer based in Ahmedabad.

While the judiciary considers such issues, the regulatory agencies now realise that after the shock treatment, industries need a balm for long-term healing, instead of band-aid solutions like ETPS.

Regulatory Agencies: from Enemies to Friends?Judicial intervention has jump started dormant pollution control boards and municipal bodies. Government agencies are beginning to help industry find solutions, but most state PCBs are still dysfunctional. Doing the job is difficult - if not impossible.

In West Bengal, for example, 18 engineers must monitor about 10,000 factories. That's pretty much the case in most states. The boards are also breeding grounds for corruption. In every state there's a nexus between pollution-control officials and erring industries. Doctored reports are common.

Eco-friendly Routes

Environmental levies must be charged, and environmental formalities must be simplified. The levies can be used to fund woefully understaffed regulatory agencies and support research for environmental fixes for specific industries.

Support the strict green laws of western countries. Much of Tamil Nadu's tannery products are exported. Already countries like Germany ban imports of materials made using environmentally harmful dyes. Governmental support for such laws will impel industry to clean up.

Natural regeneration of land polluted by some type of toxic chemicals is possible. Rains can flush out the toxins, but the area has to be sealed for at least a decade. Flushing the soil artificially with water is another alternative, but it's prohibitively costly.

In Delhi, the major problem stems from industrial units being where they are not meant to be. About 5,000 units mushroom in Delhi each year, jostling with houses for space and fouling the environment.

In the urban villages that are now part of the exploding city, tube-well connections are used to start industries.

"It can't go on like this," warns Omesh Saigal, secretary of the National Capital Region Planning Board. "You can't convert the whole of Delhi into one unplanned workshop."

Yet, that is what has happened, thanks to widespread connivance by civic authorities. And that's what the Supreme Court is trying to undo.

But the civic failure will be difficult to reverse. "Why did they give us electricity connections? Why did they give us licences?" asks an agitated H.R. Sikka, who represents hundreds of industrial units in west Delhi.

Regulatory agencies are beginning to reach out to bewildered industries, making them aware of pollution norms, and more important, helping them clean up.

It's the small-scale industries that find it particularly difficult to access new technology. So the MEF wants to use a World Bank grant - initially $200 - million to build an ambitious information network for cleaner technologies, all a phone call away. Admirable, but the proposal is stalled in the corridors of power.

Industry Future: The Need for hard DecisionsThe judiciary has opened up a Pandora's box. There's no closing it, whatever be the problems. Solutions must be found. This means some hard decisions about relocating industries, helping them, re-examining industrial siting and environmental policies.

Some compromises might have to be made, especially in Delhi. There will be considerable economic and social dislocation involved in moving out 9,000 factories. Privately, government officials believe it's possible that only hazardous industries might actually move.

Technical fixes, like reclaiming toxic lands, are possible, but there's one big obstacle: money. In Bichhri, Rajasthan, where 10 sq km of land was lost to toxic wastes, the costs of reclamation would cross Rs 40 crore.

The CPCB is working on a zoning atlas - a document that will eventually specify the kind of industry a region can support.

A long-term solution could be for the Government to set up funds for various industries: charge environmental levies, contribute government money and then use the fund to develop and finance technological fixes.

Experts are also looking at tackling the problem at its source - when permission to set up a factory is first granted.

Most large units have to submit an environmental impact assessment (EIA), a document that lists the effects a factory might have on its surroundings. But EIAS have a credibility problem, prepared as they are by hired consultants.

What is needed instead is regional EIAS, which give a clear idea of the overall capacity of an industrial area to absorb pollutants. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) is working on a zoning atlas, a massive nationwide exercise that will eventually specify the kind of industry that a region can bear.

Already, harried by regulatory pressure, the chemical industry in West Bengal has asked for an exclusive zone where wastes can be collectively handled.

Another tough decision: restrict small-scale industries. "The time has come to say that small-scale industries cannot enter certain fields, like chemicals," says Dilip Biswas, chairman of the CPCB.

Studies indicate that pulp and paper industries below a capacity of 80 tonnes a day - 59 such industries have been served notices in Uttar Pradesh - are not economically viable if they instal pollution-control equipment. Some decisions are easier.

The Environment Protection Act allows violators to be imprisoned. But, as Maudgal notes, "no one in India has ever gone to jail for environmental violations." Maybe it's time someone did.

- with G.C. Shekhar in Madras and Ruben Banerjee in Calcutta

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